Possum festival a political tradition

[Freddie Stubbs]

Candidates campaign the old-fashioned way

By Bill Cotterell

DEMOCRAT POLITICAL EDITOR


WAUSAU - Sooner or later, Florida's campaign trail winds through this little Panhandle town where voters peddle possum to politicians.

Candidates can hire marketing experts in New York and Washington to package their TV spots. They can tailor their positions with focus groups from Little Havana to Jacksonville. They can sharpen their barbs at candidate forums staged at big conventions in Tampa and Miami.

But in dozens of little towns like Wausau, barnstorming hasn't changed much since the county-to-county caravans of Fuller Warren or Claude Pepper a half-century ago.

"Festivals like this are extremely useful," said state Rep. Bev Kilmer, R-Quincy, whose bid for Congress took her to the weekend Wausau Possum Festival. "You're free to be yourself, one-on-one, and have a real conversation with all these people."

more: http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/local/9352888.htm